Someone To Hold Me When I Cry
by Baibe
Summary: Nikki needs cheering up, Luckily Harry is there to do just that.


**I dropped a bowl yesterday, it smashed and I cried for about half an hour. Half of me wishing everyone else wasn't at work so I could have a cuddle, the other half hoping they never found out that I had cried over a bowl we have 11 more of in the cupboard. Anyway it was then that I wrote this and I warn you now it isn't as angsty as the title makes it sound in the slightest, just a silly one shot.**

**I don't own silent witness and any of its characters... Or Mars bars, I can't even eat them**.

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"Nikki?" Not in the office, he'd already checked the conference room and glanced down into the cutting room but she wasn't their either. "Leo, have you seen Nikki?" Harry lent on the door frame to his bosses office with his brow furrowed in concern, he hadn't heard a call come in but he supposed that she could have gone out.

"It's cheating to ask me if your playing hide and seek." Leo didn't look up from his computer screen so missed the look Harry had decided to give him but registered the silence. "She was doing a PM so probably still getting changed." Harry didn't reply just headed off in the direction of the locker room allowing the office door to slowly creak shut. "Thanks Leo..." he muttered to himself incredulously "Oh that's no problem Harry happy to help."

"That's the first sign of madness you know..." Leo looked up in surprise at the detective now replacing Harry in his doorway.

"Oh I think I'm well past that now." Leo smiled at the DI and gathered up the papers relating to his case.

DI Jones nodded knowingly "You don't have to be mad to work here..."

"Oh no I think you do..." Leo gestured towards the conference room with his empty hand, "shall we?"

"Nikki?" Harry pushed open the door to the locker room and was met by the sound of noisy sobs, he eventually located the source of the sound sat on the floor in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest crying into her hands. "Oh Nikki," Harry hadn't realised it was particularly tough case. He sat down next to her wrapping his arm around her back and pulling her into his warm embrace, Nikki turned and rested her head on his shoulder quickly soaking it in mascara stained tears. They sat there for a moment with just the sound of Nikki's sobs penetrating the air. Harry knew that after a difficult case she just needed someone to hold her, and remind her that the world wasn't such an awful place. "Tough case?" Nikki turned her head slightly so her words wouldn't be muffled by his damp shoulder;

"I broke my favourite scalpel." Her words had been punctuated by sobs and were not quite distinguishable.

"Sorry?" She sat up pulling away from him slightly and scrubbed at the tears running down her face with the cuff of her jumper, then took a deep breath and tried again.

"I broke my scalpel, the blade got caught on something and snapped." Harry was flabbergasted all this over a scalpel blade?

"Well why don't I put a new blade in for you? Then it'll be as good as new."

"It won't be the same!" she wailed and buried her head back against Harry's shoulder, her body shaking as a new wave of tears overcame her. He desperately wanted to laugh at her but Harry knew better. If he laughed it would lead to shouting and storming out, crying Nikki was far easier to cope with. He gently ran his hand through her long hair and stroked her back until the tears had subsided a little, occasionally making soothing noises as if comforting a small child. Eventually the crying stopped and Harry tentatively examined the damage to his shirt, he'd have to change and the shirt may not survive but as he currently had a Nikki firmly attached to his shoulder he wouldn't be doing so any time soon.

"Mars bar?" Nikki chuckled and wiped her eyes.

"Yes please." Chocolate always made these situations better, the mix of sugar and phenylethylamine was proven to lift her mood. Harry pulled the chocolate bar from his pocket and passed it to her, he was relieved to see a smile briefly appear on her lips as she opened the wrapper. "And you just happened to have a mars bar?"

Harry nodded, "I'm always prepared... Well for a situation that needs a mars bar anyway."

"I didn't know you were a boy scout?" Harry just nodded and shrugged not keen to relive that particular part of his life then held her wrist still so he could steal a bite of what was technically his mars bar anyway. He stood up, still chomping a mouth full of chocolate and opened his locker hoping he had a spare shirt and wouldn't be spending the rest of the afternoon in scrubs.

"I'm sorry." Harry turned back to face her whilst unbuttoning his shirt, his face fell when he saw she wasn't smiling anymore. He'd start to wrinkle like a sundried tomato if she went back to crying on him.

"What for." He threw the shirt into the laundry basket in the hope that whatever the lab techs used to get blood out of scrubs would get the mascara stain off his shirt.

"I ruined your shirt."

Harry shrugged, pulling on a clean one. "It might come out, I didn't like it much anyway." She knew he was lying, he wore that shirt all the time. It was one of his favourites but she appreciated it all the same. "C'mon," he finished buttoning up his clean shirt and reached down to pull her up to standing "Leo thinks we're playing hide and seek so we should probably go and do some work." She took his outstretched hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and then into a hug, just for a second. Harry knew if he continued it any longer the tears would return so he pushed her away gently and guided her back to their office where she promptly sat at his desk while he went about making them both tea, they rarely drank it favouring coffee but it was almost as effective as chocolate at cheering her up. "Here," he passed her the tea which she gratefully took. "That's my desk you know."

"I know." she sipped her tea but didn't offer to move, and for once he didn't try to make her.

"Is it your turn to hide now Harry?" Leo was headed back to his office when he spotted Nikki sat at Harry's desk, she usually ony did that now whatever she was upset or needed reassuring. She turned when he spoke and Leo caught sight of her red rimmed eyes. "Nikki are you...?" Just in time Leo spotted Harry frantically shaking his head behind her, knowing that if Leo asked if she was alright the chocolate and tea would cease to work and she'd become a water feature again. "... Free tonight? I was thinking we could all go for a drink, it's been a while since we have."

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**Phenylethylamine (also known as the love drug) is a chemical which releases endorphins in the brain, these make you feel happy, warm, safe and in love. It exists in chocolate and is part of why we love it so much.**

**'Be prepared' is the Scouts motto and it's always fun to remind them of this if you find an unprepared scout, I like to do it in the style of Arwen in LOTR TFOTR: 'What's this? A scout not prepared?" Sadly I rarely have a sword though.**


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